Author's Note

CONTENT WARNING
This chapter contains a brutal murder. It's the first of many that will happen throughout the rest of the story.

The chapter title translates to "when you're enjoying prosperity, be wary of adversity." This is the first Italian proverb I had to translate from English with google, so if any Italian speakers are reading, please let me know so I can fix it and any other inconsistencies with the language.

05: Quando Ti Godi la Prosperità, Diffida Delle Avversità

Arianna knocked on Felicity’s door. “Lis, it’s Arie. You ready to go yet?”

Several days had passed since Felicity’s rescue, and as they had discussed, Arianna was about to escort Felicity to a nearby gym so she could start training in self-defense. After a moment Felicity opened the door.

“I’m not sure what I can bring,” Felicity said. “I didn’t have much with me when I moved back here, and you guys already brought it over when I started living here.”

“We’ll have to buy you some exercise clothes then,” Arianna said. “I always pack spare workout clothes when I go to the gym, so you can use those today.”

Felicity thanked her and they started their journey down the streets to the gym. Though it was still light out, Felicity stayed close to Arianna. They were passing the area where Felicity had been rescued.

“Be cool, Lis,” Arianna said, wrapping her arm around Felicity’s shoulders. “You’re gonna be okay. I’ll protect you if something happens again.”

They kept walking in silence until they arrived at the gym. Arianna walked up to the desk and showed the red-headed attendant her membership card.

“Welcome back, Arianna.”

“Hello, Gloria. I’ve got a guest with me today.” Felicity peeked out from behind Arianna and gave a little wave. “Felicity’s going to be joining me for a while. I’m gonna be teaching her some self-defense.”

“Fantastic!” Gloria said. “We do have classes on Thursdays–”

Arianna held up a hand and Gloria stopped talking. “I’m gonna stop you there. Felicity gets nervous around others, but thanks for the offer. I may take you up on those so I can teach her later. We’re just gonna use a padded room today.”

Gloria nodded and gave Arianna an access pass to one of the smaller rooms. Arianna led Felicity to the room, and they dropped their bags by the door. They spent a few minutes stretching.

“All right, let’s start with seeing what you know. Say I’ve cornered you in an alley and I’m about to attack you from the front. What would you do?”

“I can’t run away?”

“No running away. You’re cornered.”

“Um, a kick to the knee? So they can’t run after me when I run away.”

“That’s not bad, but you’ve got to be pretty accurate and strong in order to do enough damage to the kneecap, so it’s not ideal for a beginner. An easier defense is a kick to the crotch, especially if your attacker is a dude. It still hurts on a chick since you’re kicking bone, but when guys get kicked in the balls, they’re unable to do much else for a few minutes.” Arianna held her hand over her groin, palm facing down and invited Felicity to kick.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Felicity said.

“I’ll be fine,” Arianna reassured her. “I’ve gotten way worse injuries before, and you’ll be kicking my hand before you get to the bone.” Felicity hesitated for a moment, and then swung her leg up between Arianna’s legs, barely reaching Arianna’s hand. “Good try. Now work your way up, kicking harder.” Felicity nodded and kicked a few more times, each time hitting Arianna’s hand harder until she kicked so hard Arianna had to pull her hand back and rub her wrist.

“Oh no. Did I hurt you?”

“That’s not important,” Arianna replied with a smile. “What is important is that I didn’t expect you to be able to kick that hard! You must’ve gone on tons of nature walks the last fifteen years.”

“Oh, yes,” Felicity said with a smile. “Tons.”

They continued training for the rest of the hour Arianna had booked the room. Arianna taught Felicity a heel palm strike for attacking an assailant’s nose or throat with a flat palm, how to strike with her elbows, and most importantly how to get out of being held from behind. After the training session, Arianna and Felicity walked from the gym floor to the locker room. It wasn’t too late so there were still plenty of people at the gym. Arianna led Felicity to the locker room showers, and Felicity stayed at the door.

“We’re going to shower in public?” Felicity asked.

“Yes, but they’re still private stalls. Each stall has walls and a curtain for privacy.”

“What if someone comes in anyway?”

“Nobody does that. It’ll be fine.”

“Can the curtain be secured closed?”

“Um, they’re curtains. They’re not meant to be locked.” Felicity still looked nervous. “How about this: you use this shower,” Arianna said, pointing to one shower stall before pointing to the stall directly across from it, “and I’ll be in this one. I’ll keep my curtain open so that if anyone comes in with bad intentions, they’re more likely to attack me since I’m more readily accessible, and I’ll just kick their ass if they do. It’s okay, Lis,” she said, taking Felicity’s hand. “I’ll protect you no matter what.”

Felicity nodded and stepped into the shower stall. Arianna closed the curtain behind her and stepped into her own shower stall, keeping her curtain open as promised. They undressed, set their clothes aside, and began showering. Arianna kept an eye on Felicity’s shower stall, and Felicity started singing. Arianna paused for a moment, listening to her beautiful singing for a minute. She finished up quickly and started drying herself off, and then waited for Felicity to finish. The singing stopped abruptly, and a second later Felicity opened the shower curtain.

“In the future we’ll come when there are fewer people here, like in the evenings,” Arianna said. “Would you like that?” Felicity nodded. “All right, we’ll do that then. Good thing this is a 24-hour gym.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Diane “Pinkie” Pinkerton drove her car down a side street to an unlit and unkempt city park and parked it next to a lone street lamp. The light shone on the hood of the car but left the cab and trunk in darkness. Her fingers drummed on the steering wheel. She looked at a nearby warehouse. A new client had agreed to meet with one of the Rainbooms to buy some illicit drugs. Diane looked at the clock on her phone. She realized she was early, so she took a joint from her pocket and lit it. She waved it around a bit to get the smoke flowing and closed her eyes as she breathed it in. She didn’t need a lot, just enough to calm her hyperactivity.

Pinkie had tried many suggested methods to calm her naturally high energy level such as meditation, exercise, and eating healthy, but most of them took longer to start working than her attention span could handle. As for eating healthy, Pinkie had no desire to give up her love of baked goods and candy. Inhaling some smoke was often enough to tone her down enough for meetings liked the one she was about to attend.

She let the joint smolder a little longer as she watched the warehouse. Soon, a car drove up and parked in front of the warehouse. A man got out of the car, pulled a suitcase from it, and walked into the warehouse. Pinkie extinguished the joint, put it in the car’s ashtray, and opened the trunk. She got out and took a briefcase from the trunk before making her way to the warehouse.

A short walk later Pinkie reached her waiting client by what used to be the warehouse’s offices.

“Good evening,” she said, and the client jumped back.

“Sorry,” he said. “You kinda snuck up on me.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.” Pinkie smiled, and kept smiling.

The guy pointed at Pinkie’s briefcase. “Is that the shit?”

“Yeah, this is the shit.”

The client, nervous, rubbed his hands together. “How do we do this? I’ve never bought drugs before.”

“We swap the shit for the money,” she answered, still smiling.

“Uh, yeah. I get that. I’ve seen a few movies. Who goes first, do you show me the drugs or do I show you the money?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Depends. Sometimes drugs first, sometimes money. Sometimes the buyer wants to test the product before buying to make sure it’s as good as they expect.”

They continued talking and, eventually, finally made the deal. Pinkie handed over the drugs and the client handed over the money at the same time.

“Pleasure doing business, sir!” Pinkie said, and turned away.

And then she thought she heard something behind her. She cocked her head and turned around.

“What did you just call me?” Pinkie’s normally cheery demeanor was almost immediately chilled. The buyer paused in his steps for a moment, but then started walking again, a little faster.

“Hey, I’m talking to you!” Pinkie dropped the briefcase of money and took a switchblade out of her pocket, clicking it open. The sound of the switchblade opening must have convinced him, and he turned around. He saw a fire in her eyes. “What. Did you call me.”

He stammered, and after a moment spoke. “I… I, I called you dumb.”

“There was one other word,” she said, pointing the knife at him and walking closer. He started backing up. “Say it!”

“Dumb bitch, I called you a dumb bitch!”

“That’s what I thought you said.”

Pinkie stood over a bloody, mutilated body, covered in her client’s blood and breathing heavily. Her fingers loosened and dropped the knife onto the floor. She lifted her head, eyes glistening and her mouth quivered as the tears started to fall down her cheeks. She looked around the room, seeing the briefcase she’d entered with laying open on the floor. One of the packages had opened, and she stared at it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunset drove her car toward the business district at the edge of town. She’d gotten a text from Diane not long ago asking for help, but with no details. She worried every time she got a text like that from Diane, because she knew it was never good.

Sunset pulled up to the warehouse and made her way inside. Soon she held her hand up to her mouth, seeing the scene. Diane was kneeling by a bloody, mutilated body. She hurried to her friend. “Fucking hell, Pinkie. What the hell happened?”

Pinkie looked up at Sunset, her eyes red. Beside her was an open bag of drugs she was to have sold that night, and though Sunset couldn’t tell for sure she had a strong suspicion that Diane had taken some.

“I – I don’t know,” she said. “We did the thing, he called me a dumb bitch, and then I was standing over his body holding my knife.”

Sunset’s head ran with different thoughts. She wished Phillip was here so she could collect her thoughts the way she preferred, but he wasn’t, so instead she focused on her own heartbeat to collect her thoughts.

“Okay, Pinkie,” she said, gently touching Diane’s shoulder. “Try to stand up. Let’s go over here.”

Diane slowly stood up, her body shaking, and Sunset led her away from the body.

“Will he be okay?” she asked.

Sunset wasn’t sure if telling the truth about the obviously dead body behind them would help her feel better or not. Most likely not, since Diane might be under the influence of the drugs they were trafficking.

“He might pull through,” she lied. “Okay, lay down here. I’ll call the doctor.” Diane laid down and Sunset pulled out her phone, scrolling through her contacts until she got to the number for gang’s doctor. She told him the location of the warehouse and that Diane might be under the influence of drugs. She hung up and then called the gang’s cleaners, giving them the same directions. She put the phone back in her pocket after ending the call and sat next to Diane, waiting for the doctor to arrive.

Sunset used the next few minutes to think, then spoke up softly. “Pinkie, you need help.”

Diane said nothing. Soon the doctor arrived, followed by the cleaners. The doctor took his time looking Diane over as the cleaners began their work, cleaning up all the blood and viscera. Sunset watched as one cleaner picked up the briefcases and carried them out to their vehicle.

“She’ll be all right,” the doctor said, bringing Sunset’s attention back to him. “She has no wounds and should recover quickly.”

“Any other injuries?” she asked, tapping a finger to her head.

“We’ll have to do a more in-depth investigation back at headquarters,” he replied, giving her a nod.

“What about the other guy?” Diane asked.

“Doc’s checking him next,” Sunset responded and gave the doctor the go-ahead. He stood up and brought his bag over to the body as Sunset helped Diane up. “Do you still have the keys to your car?” Diane pointed to one of her pockets. Sunset reached in and took out the keys to the car Diane had driven. She got the attention of one of the cleaners and tossed him the keys and told him where the car was, and led Diane to her own vehicle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arianna and Felicity walked from the gym floor to the locker room after Felicity’s training session. It was late so there were very few others in the building, but even after over a week of coming to the gym, Felicity was still nervous about showering in public. Arianna continued to shower in the stall next to Felicity’s with the curtain open so she could jump out and protect her friend in the very, very slight chance that something was going to happen, which it never did. Arianna always showered faster than Felicity, and would stand waiting for her until she was finally done.

They made their way to the lockers, and Arianna looked at a nearby mirror, looking closer at her blonde roots.

“I think I’m gonna have to redye my hair soon,” she said.

“Why don’t you let it grow out?” Felicity asked. “The rainbow colors look nice, but you also look lovely with your natural blonde hair.”

“Thanks, Lis. I’ll redye my hair, but I’ll think about letting more blonde show through. See if I like it before making a final decision. By the way,” she said, “you’re a quick learner. You learned those techniques quickly tonight. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you’ve already got some experience,” Arianna laughed.

“Thanks, Arie,” Felicity responded, facing away and fixing her hair. “I have a good teacher.”

“Not just a good teacher, an awesome one!”

The two young women finished drying off their hair and bodies and got dressed before packing up their things and leaving the gym.

“Wow, it’s already dark out,” Felicity said nervously and walked closer to Arianna.

“Yeah, we must’ve been in there longer than we thought.” They walked in silence for a minute before Arianna stopped and turned to Felicity. “Lis, something’s been bugging me since you came back.”

“Oh?” she asked. “What is it?”

“When your parents took you away, I thought you were gonna be gone forever. What brought you back?”

Felicity stood beside her friend, quiet for a moment. “My parents are… busy,” she began. “I started at a local college after I graduated high school, but with all the extra free time I had my mind wandered, and I started thinking about you again. I wondered how you’d been getting along, and eventually my desire to know overpowered my fear of this city. And the fear of not knowing.”

“No way,” Arianna said. “You came back because of me, and then I saved your life. What are the odds of that?”

“Somehow, I had a feeling we’d find each other eventually.”

“Just like we did in grade school,” Arianna said, and they started walking again. It wasn’t long before Arianna snapped her fingers. “That’s why those two would-be muggers who were following you looked familiar! They were two of the three bullies on the playground.”

“I didn’t notice,” Felicity said, turning her head aside but continuing to walk with Arianna. “I never got a good look at them.”

“Fortunately, next time you meet them you’ll be able to kick their sorry butts.” By this time, Arianna and Felicity had reached the music store. Arianna took out her keys, unlocked the front door, and ushered her friend inside before locking the door again. Felicity started walking to the staff door, which Arianna opened and led her up the stairs to the room she’d been staying in.

“Thank you, Arie,” Felicity said, standing just outside the door.

“Any time, Lis.”

Felicity opened the door to her room, and hesitated.

“Is something wrong, Felicity?”

“Oh, no, I just…” Felicity turned around and gave Arianna a quick kiss on the cheek before hurrying into the room and shutting the door.

Arianna stood there for a while, and gently touched her cheek where Felicity had kissed her. She looked at her hand as if expecting something to be on it, but then lowered her arm and started walking down the stairs.

“Well, that was… unexpected.” She was about to enter her office when she heard the back door open. Sunset walked in, helping Diane walk as well. Both had blood on them, but Diane had most of it. “Holy shit, what happened?”

“The short version is that the drug deal Pinkie was on went south,” Sunset said. “She needs to stay with our doctor for a while until he can do a full evaluation.” Sunset led Pinkie to the facility’s medical room, which was really more like a glorified nurse’s station, and helped her lay on the cot. “Doc will be here soon. You gonna be okay, Pinkie?”

“I’ll be fine. I’m more worried about the other guy.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine too,” Sunset said and closed the door. Once the door was closed, Sunset beckoned Arianna to follow her into her office, and closed that door too. “He won’t be fine,” she said, making her way to her desk. She sat in her chair and leaned all the way back. “She overheard him call her a dumb bitch under his breath, and she snapped. Basically, she cut him to ribbons.”

“Yeesh. Remind me not to get on her bad side.”

“Dash, now is not the time to try to be funny! This is serious!”

“Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry.” Arianna sat down in front of her boss. Now was definitely not the time to tell Sunset about what had happened on the stairs. “What can we do?”

“Once Doc gives her a fully psychiatric evaluation we’ll know,” Sunset responded. “Until then… part of me want to drink myself to sleep, and another part of me wants to run away from all of this. I’ve seen dead bodies before, but what happened to this guy was awful.”

Arianna stood up and made her way to the other side of the desk, putting her hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “You’re probably in shock right now, Sunset,” she said, using her boss’s real name instead of her alias. “Drink some water, go home and take a shower or something, and get some rest. You’ll be more clear-headed in the morning. I’ll take care of things here until tomorrow.”

Sunset sighed and leaned forward in her chair. “Thanks, Arianna. You’re right. I’m letting my emotions control me instead of reason.”

“Don’t worry,” Arianna said, “I won’t tell anyone else that you have emotions.”

Sunset looked up and gave her friend a soft punch in the arm. “Jerk. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Sunset said, standing up from her chair. “Doc will be here for Diane, anything else...” Sunset thought for a moment. “If Twilight’s still here, send her home too. That woman gets so invested in her work I swear she could work through an apocalypse.”

“Kinda sounds like someone else I know,” Arianna said, pulling Sunset out of her office. Once in the hallway Arianna put her hands on Sunset’s shoulders and smiled. “Sofia, I’ve got this. Wash that guy’s blood off your hands and go home.”

They said good night to each other and Sunset finally left, after a quick detour to the bathroom to get whatever dried blood she could off her hands. Arianna did the same, having touched some blood that had been on Sunset’s clothes at some point, and then crossed the hall to knock on Twilight’s door.

“Just a minute!” called a voice from inside. Arianna rolled her eyes and waited for the door to open. As soon as it opened, Arianna didn’t let Twilight continue with her usual ‘how can I help you’.

“You know it’s almost midnight, right?”

“In this time zone,” Twilight asked, “or are you trying to be funny again?”

“Yes, in this time zone. Sofia wanted to make sure you went home tonight. We all know that you can get so invested your work that you forget to eat and sleep.”

Twilight straightened her glasses and looked at the clock in her lab that was next to the door. She then took out her phone to compare times.

“The battery in the clock must have died two hours and 13 minutes ago,” she said.

“I’ll fix it,” Arianna said, cutting Twilight off before she could volunteer herself. “I’m staying to watch over Pinkie tonight anyway.”

“What happened to Pinkie?”

“Something bad,” Arianna responded. “You and everyone else will get details tomorrow.”

A mouse scurried along the edge of the hallway wall. Twilight shrieked and quickly moved behind Arianna as the mouse found its way through the open door into Twilight’s lab.

“Have a good night, Dash! Please take care of that too!” Twilight said as she hurried down the hall out the facility’s back door, shutting it tightly behind her.

Arianna chuckled. “I should try using a mouse to get Sunset out of here sometime,” she said and entered Twilight’s lab on a mouse hunt.